Morocco’s Cereal Production Soars 221%, Reaching Record 103.2 Million Quintals

This harvest comes from a cereal area of 4.35 million hectares, practically similar to that of the previous campaign (+0.3%), the Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement, adding that the initial growth estimates for the entire agricultural sector with all its sectors, will have to be confirmed. This demonstrates greater resilience of the agricultural sector.

By type, cereal production is divided between soft wheat (50.6 Mqx), durum wheat (24.8 Mqx) and barley (27.8 Mqx). The 2020-2021 agricultural season was marked by a good temporal distribution of rainfall and an occurrence with the key stages of cereal development (tillering, stem elongation and filling), the ministry said. In some regions, the yields obtained exceeded the initial forecasts, particularly north of Oum Errabia.

The 2020-2021 campaign is historically the second best campaign after that of 2014-2015 despite rainfall comparable to a normal campaign. This testifies to the technical progress made in cereal cultivation, thanks in particular to the dissemination of genetic progress, the result of the use of certified seeds, the mechanization of cultural operations and the introduction of new production and soil conservation technologies such as direct seeding.

In this regard, in favorable areas (Saiss, lower Chaouia, Gharb), farms have been able to achieve yields of 50 and 60 quintals per hectare, which reflects the efforts made for an optimized exploitation of the potential of this sector.